Pitched White Labs WLP023 into 90 degree wort. Healthy ferm, delicious beer

My chiller-sink fitting was busted, which I didn't realize until the chiller was in the wort. I tried to hold it together with my hand, which obviously didn't work too well. In an hour and a half it was down to 90F, and I couldn't take it anymore so I just held my breath and pitched.

From winemaking I knew 90 is safely below yeast-kill temp, and from proofing baking yeast I knew yeast is actually pretty happy in sugar water around 100 degrees, so I figured the chances of totally screwing the pooch were low enough.

Fermentation was going in five hours, I just racked the beer (after 2 weeks) and it tastes fine... good, even. Not an award-winner, but no off-flavors whatsoever.

So I'm just hoping to get some insight into what actually happened here on the cellular level... any thoughts? Shouldn't flaunting yeast manufacturer directions have ruined my beer?

whahoppened said:

Shouldn't flaunting yeast manufacturer directions have ruined my beer?

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Heck, no. Pitching at 90 isn't a great idea, but it won't ruin your beer. Yeast will reproduce well at a warm temperature (they LOVE it warm) and fermentation will begin very quickly.

Some yeast strains just don't taste very good when fermented above certain temperatures. Nottingham yeast, for example, is pretty foul when fermented above about 72 degrees. Northwest ale yeast gets a great fruitiness when fermented at 75 degrees, though.

As you know, 90 degrees isn't too warm for the yeast. The worst that can happen is some off-flavors produced. I would say that you probably DO have some unintended flavors, but if you don't mind them then it's not a problem.

Just wondering, how did this beer turn out?

Turned out OK--tasted like average homebrew. Nothing objectionable, nothing outstanding.

any reason you had to pitch immediately? it's plenty safe to let it sit overnight til it reaches a lower temp

Really? I always assumed unfermented wort at "room" temperature was a sitting duck.

whahoppened said:

Really? I always assumed unfermented wort at "room" temperature was a sitting duck.

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Not if your sanitation is good.

Palmers book and few others talk about the compounds produced by yeast,,, short version; my understanding.

Yeast:

1. eats sugar in wort
2. expells waste (Co2, Alcohol, and a bunch of other stuff that is bad tasting)
3. exhausts the simple sugars it can consume
4. eats some of of the "other stuff" (there by conditioning the beer) If to early you would be drinking GREEN BEER.
5. once everything is consumed it goes domant
6. give it more sugar it might just wake up

Fermenting at to high of a temprature will cause the yeast to produce "bad stuff" that it cannot later consume and condition the beer.

Some commercial brewerys actually ferment at a higher TEMP then we have all be taught to but they know their yeast and it may be appropreate to the style::: Read Brew like a Monk.

DPB

whahoppened...

Only if you got the little beasties in there.... remember we just killed everything,, it is pasturized...

Sometime when I finish the boil I cover the top with a sanitized wet rag and just wait until the temp is about 150 before turning on the wort chiller... I don't have to worry because that is to hot for the little beasties to live...

Same if you can transfer to a container while still hot... it is like canning.

Also the hops will retard the growth of a lot of bacteira...

Then when you toss you BREWERS YEAST in (something that loves the environment) when it takes hold... other things have trouble compeating...

DISCLAMER:::: I never do this but that is the idea... I have let Mash sit over night though... since it is going to get boiled anyway